Dr. C. Aujean Lee and Dr. John C. Harris, professors of Regional + City Planning, recently organized and moderated a roundtable at the 2021 Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) Conference. The roundtable, titled “Whiteness and Urban Planning: Uncovering what is Unspoken, Assumed, and Missing,” addressed whiteness and white supremacy in planning scholarship, teaching, and pedagogy.
Fields such as urban planning and other built environment disciplines are still overwhelmingly dominated by white practitioners and shaped by white supremacy. In their roundtable, Dr. C Aujean Lee and Dr. John C. Harris defined white supremacy as the sociopolitical system that creates and reinforces white advantages over other groups.
Dr. Lee states, “While built environment disciplines acknowledge that whiteness and white supremacy have shaped our cities (e.g., zoning, enforced segregation, redlining, siting of environmental hazards), there is still more work needed to understand these phenomena given that they are oftentimes unspoken, assumed, or missing. People are also often afraid to directly talk about race, which then affects our ability to understand and address systemic racism. If we can’t talk about a problem, we can’t address it.”
This roundtable gave attendees the opportunity to openly talk about and address the problem of system racism in built environment disciplines. Attendees got to not only hear about current work on whiteness and white supremacy in urban planning, but also were able to share best practices in how whiteness affects their scholarship, teaching, and community engagement.
Roundtable presenters and attendees discussed strategies to talk about whiteness in curriculum and studies that have sought to understand whiteness and white supremacy. The roundtable also included how planning practitioners can further diversity, equity, and inclusion in their fields. These techniques ranged from workplace interactions to promotion guidelines that account for those who do community-based work.
Construction Industry Speaker Series welcomed Stephen Evans from the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum to give a lecture on better conversations and relationship building.
The University of Oklahoma Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture Hall of Fame recognizes a select number of high-character individuals who have made a significant and lasting positive impact on Gibbs College, its students, staff, faculty, alumni and/or to communities across the globe. The impact may have been, or continues to be, in the form of service and mentorship, sustained professional excellence, and/or advancement and financial support. Joseph Edgar Smay is part of the 2025 Hall of Fame class.
Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture congratulates three architecture students who were recognized in the 2026 AIA Dallas Student Design Awards.
